February 29th Cozy and Healthy Chinese Food

February 29th is the special day once every four years. Hope everyone had a productive Monday and did something special today. For me, I planned to go to the gym to work out but eventually failed because my dear friend called me for some home cooking! Well, eating good food is always my priority so let's just forget about working out. 

As many foreigners don't really know, Chinese food can be really healthy and light. (It's not always heavily flavored and oily) Apparently my friend is a great chef with good taste of foods and healthy diet habits. My stomach is well treated in this special day once every four years! 

Three hour cooked clay pot congee with dried scallop and bbq duck. Finished with chopped Chinese fried donut.

The original clay pot!

Steamed cod fish in Chinese fish steam sauce, sesame oil, ginger and cilantro. 

Stir fried lettuce with dried shrimp. 

Other Veggies: Bok choy and spicy morning glory. 

Ending the healthy dinner with fresh ginger and lemon tea!

P.s. Yesterday was the Oscar Awards day, Leonardo DiCaprio finally got the best actor award ;)

                                                  

Not Just Pasta and Pizza -- Italian Street Foods

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year everyone!!! Wish you a great year of monkey! Hope you had some cozy foods, received a lot of red envelopes and celebrated this special time of year with your family, friends and loved ones.

During Chinese New Year, I was traveling in Italy. Before going there, all I thought of Italian foods are of course Pasta and Pizza -- all types of them with different cookings (maybe some risotto too). To my friend who's trying to cut carbs, this is like "OMG no way, I'm not a big fan of pasta and I'm not gonna eat." Well, the truth is, she couldn't resist it when we got there and had many different pastas as well as some other great authentic Italian foods that we discovered. Most of them can only be easily found in Italy. So don't miss out next time when you go to Italy!

Gnocco Fritto:

Gnocco Fritto is a traditional food from Emilia Romagna region (although I had it in Milan). It tastes slightly like Chinese fried doughnuts (油条)  but it doesn't taste like that deep fried. The picture I took below is a basket of freshly fried Gnocco Fritto. I am even about to drool now just looking at it and thinking about the taste.

Artichokes:

Artichoke is something you can not miss when you go to Rome. Roman style artichokes are my favorite. They prepare it with olive oil, lemon juice and maybe some herbs. It's just simply delicious!

There are a variety of cookings with artichokes in Italy. Jewish style fried artichokes are great as well.

Also, they have some wonderful artichokes pasta. 

Trippa Panini:

So it seems like not just Asian eat beef tripes, Italian eat them too! Here's the traditional local street food tripes panini. Worth to try if you see it in Italy.

Besides these, please also have tons of ham, cheese, gelato, tiramisu, stuffs with Nutella and of course WINE when you are there!

                               

*For better page quality, please view web version.